Need your Help – Communications Survey

Remember the fax machine (we actually still have one in the office)?  Remember telegrams (don’t admit it or if you do, say you saw it in a movie once)? Krista and I have been looking at how we communicate with the people who are interested in our ministry and our lives.  There are two major parts to good communication – the content and the method.

We want to make sure we are communicating what it is you want to know.  If we’re telling you about the technical details of an eDOT project and you want to know how Alex is doing – we’re not doing a good job of communicating.

On the other hand, if we are telling you about what it is you want to know but are using a communication method that you don’t use or use infrequently (like sending everyone faxes or telegrams), then you won’t receive the information and that’s not good communication either.

So would you help us out?  Take just a few minutes and fill out our Communication Survey .  It only take about 5-7 minutes (or if you want to, you can take longer) but knowing this information will really help us in making sure we are as effective in communicating as we can be.  Your info is greatly appreciated!!

Go to the Communication Survey here!

Videos & Scooters

Ok, someone made a comment that they hoped that my recent blogs of making videos and riding on scooters wouldn’t get combined.  Something about fear for my personal safety or something.  I’m not sure they know me well enough to know that that’s just asking me to do something.  So, Kris, for your viewing pleasure – here’s my RIDE home video (on a scooter)  -  Please don’t watch if you are my mother or you get motion-sickness or both!

Ramadan

Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar.  So why do a I bring this up? – because we are in it right now.  Several people I know and many throughout Europe and the world are celebrating Ramadan right now.  They describe it as one of the best months of the year as families get together multiple times through the month.

For Muslims, Ramadan is a month where they fast (giving up food and drink and other things) during the daylight hours so that they can concentrate more on praising and worshiping Allah.  It’s a time where they focus on living more pure lives in hopes that this will continue through the other months of the year.  Many believe that Allah locks Satan and his workers away preventing them from misleading and deceiving people during the month so that no sin committed during Ramadan can be blamed on Satan, only on the hearts of those committing the sin.  They believe that if you participate properly in Ramadan, then all your past sins will be forgiven.  They are taking the time to better themselves before Allah.  It’s also a time of celebration as when the sunsets, many get together with families and friends to eat their meals.  One friend of mine says that he loves to be around his family during Ramadan as its a whole month of being close to his extended family.  Kinda like how some Christians feel of the Christmas holidays – a really good time with family.

Currently, some friends of mine just moved to a Muslim country and are participating in their first Ramadan.  Since they are foreigners, the locals don’t expect them to actually fast.  But to show respect for the culture, my friends have decided to participate in the fast and the evening celebrations.  If this is something you have not experienced, then know that this is a difficult thing to do.  You have no energy during the day (and its HOT!) and you are up most of the night eating and celebrating.  So basically you are hungry and tired for the month.  However, they want to show their intentions of being true and respectful to the culture they are in.

To show our support of them, many of us are participating in the fast by signing up for one day during Ramadan (mind you, its only one day).  Today is that day for me.  As I’m praying and worshiping God in my extra time or whenever my stomach rumbles, here are some of my prayers:

• That people of all religions around the world will understand that God doesn’t require us to do or behave in a certain matter (removing the bad things or sin from our lives) to be able to be with Him – instead He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to wipe out our sins so that we can be with Him.  That it is once we accept and have faith in what Jesus did this for us (and we don’t have to) that God will work within us, through the Holy Spirit, to start removing the things in our lives that hurt our relationship with God.  (if you have questions about this – feel free to contact me or comment below)
• That as people all around the globe participate in Ramadan, that God will use this time to speak to them LOUDLY as they open their hearts to more spiritual matters.
• That God will strengthen my friends whom I’m supporting on this day and that they will be influencers of the Truth where they are now living.  This also goes for many other friends that I have living in and out of Muslim countries who are interacting with those that are participating in Ramadan.
• I pray for the millions of Muslims living in Europe who see relics related to the Christian history (much of it with disdain) but that they will instead see Christianity as a relationship with God.
• That as people are seeking spiritual matters during this time, they will use whatever means is open to them (friends, cell phones, the Internet, etc) to ask the hard questions that they are sometimes afraid to ask and that they will find the answers that point them to the Truth.  Praying that the people/websites/technological systems that they ask these questions of will be ready and willing to share the Gospel with them.
• That those that do find the Truth during this time will be able to live it out even though their families may reject them, they may lose their jobs, their friends may abuse them and the authorities may arrest them.

Would you pray with me?

Scooter Craziness – Part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been driving around town on a friend’s scooter.  It’s been really nice.  Well, on Sunday I went to church and passed another friend of mine named Thad.  As I pulled into church, the parking area was full of motorcycles.  I mean really nice motorcycles – BMW’s and other nice bikes.  Now I had to figure out where to park as every place was taken.  Eventually, I figured I’d park in the motorcycle line up and worked on backing myself in which was not easy.  Thad observed and stated that he had seen air-craft carriers parallel park faster and easier than me parking the scooter.  I guess it was a funny site.

Well, it turned out that a biker group was joining us for Sunday worship and here I had put my little scooter in their line up.  Part of my worship time was praying that I had parked my scooter right and that it wouldn’t fall over doing that comical “knocking all the other bikes over” thing.  Anyway, after worship I waited as by now some more bikers had shown up and my scooter was in the middle of it all.  Now the bikers were having a good time talking and so there was no outlasting them.  Finally, I made my way out and got on the scooter.  I tried to sneak out but the little “putt-putt” of the scooter gave me away.  I do think I heard some snickering going on as I drove away.

I hoped that was the end of it but God has a sense of humor.  So I went to fill up my scooter with gas – this was my first time filling it up and I wasn’t sure what I was doing.  The gas station is usually really dead on Sundays so when I pulled in, nobody was there.  I was so relieved as I could try and figure out where to fill up and all without any pressures.  Not true!  As soon as I pulled in, all the bikers showed up as they were filling up before going on their Sunday afternoon ride and yet again, I was the little scooter in the middle of all the bikes.  It took me a little bit to figure everything out but as soon as I could, I filled up and got out of there.

I think God might be working on a pride thing with me.

Scooter Craziness

A friend of mine is out of town for a few months and since I’m trying to get rid of tendinitis in my foot, he’s letting me borrow his scooter to putt around town with.  So far I have had some adventures.

The first time I rode the scooter was at my friend’s place before he left.  I got on thinking that this would be like riding a bike or the three-wheelers I used to drive as a kid.  This is not the case.  As I tried to pull into the street, I figured out three things: 1) don’t try to do a Fred Flintstone by stopping a vehicle with your feet,  2) even if you have full clamped down on the brake, it’s hard to stop if you don’t back off on the gas and 3) the curb can help you stop!  Once I got stopped, I looked back and realized that I had done a nice “S” shaped drive down the road and ended up on the wrong side of the road.  It must have been quite a sight as a German lady who had been walking by was now screaming (roughly translated) – “oh my, oh my – you’re going to get killed!”  I was so thankful no one had a video camera on me.  That was when my friend suggested that I go and get a feel for the scooter by driving around a parking lot next door.  So I spent a little bit of time getting a feel for it before making my way home.

Now my friend hadn’t stayed outside (I don’t think he wanted to watch me get killed or demolish his scooter) so after I had gotten home, we received a phone call.  Krista answered and it was my friend asking if I was there.  Krista was quick on her feet and and said “No, I thought he was working late with you?”  My friend was stunned.  His mind quickly raced to thinking that I was laid out on some road having had some accident or something.  So as to not alarm Krista, he told her that he had left me working and had to go immediately.  That’s when Krista figured he’d had enough and told him I was there.  He was so relieved (and yes, his first thoughts were for my safety before the condition of his scooter).  I have since gotten better driving around town.  Soon I hope to be able to drive further than our town.  Maybe I’ll just go for a drive in the Black Forest today!

A Typical Walk Home

Our team has gotten a little video camera which I’ve been messing around with so one evening the other week I made a video on my walk home.  Hopefully, this will give you a little idea of where it is we live and how I end my work day.  Enjoy!

17th Wedding Anniversary – Part 2

For our 17th Wedding Anniversary, we slipped out of the conference we were in and made a trip in Prague, Czech Republic for dinner.  We’ve been to Prague before so we knew there would be a TGI Fridays and we decided to splurge.  Krista got the nachos she’s been craving and I got some hot wings and we shared a nice cheeseburger.  For Alex, chicken fingers with a good honey-mustard sauce.  These are all things that are hard to find in Europe, let alone find that taste as good as to what we remember having in the States.  We returned to our conference extremely satisfied.  Here’s a litte video clip of our time in Prague: